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QUICK-HIT INVESTIGATION: State regulators focus on obscure violations

The State of Texas may not be particularly vigorous when it comes to regulating the storage of highly explosive fertilizers, but it wields a mighty hammer when it comes to tracking down hairbraiding scofflaws and making sure that obscure tow truck signage violators are punished.

State regulatory agencies have been criticized for concentrating on minor violations at the expense of bigger, more complex legal infractions. After all, those can take more time and energy to prosecute — a hardship when staffs are small and money scarce. And the law is the law.

Yet pursuing extremely minor violations can also come off as petty, unnecessarily harsh and a waste of state workers’ valuable time. Consider two recent decisions from the State Office of Administrative Hearings, which presides over occupational licensing disputes.

On October 3, at the recommendation of the enforcement team at the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Judge Gary Elkins assessed Courtney Archbold a $1,000 penalty. Her crime: advertising to braid hair without a license on Craigslist.

According to SOAH documents, Archbold was busted when a TDLR investigator, who testified that she regularly reads Craigslist to search for licensing violations, discovered the offending advertisement: “Hi everyone. Are you looking to have your hair professionally braided in a relaxing home environment with full accommodations for you.”

Supposedly, state occupational licensing is done primarily to protect the public. Texas has licensed hairbraiding for more than a decade and originally the licensing and regulation department demanded a full cosmetology license. The law was changed in 2007 to require only a 35-hour certificate. It is not clear however, how many members of the public have suffered braiding-related injuries.

The state oversight has continued to be attacked by libertarian groups as an example of misplaced government priorities. Earlier this month, a Dallas hairbraider, supported by one such organization, filed a lawsuit in federal District Court claiming that the Texas law allowing her to teach African hairbraiding only out of a state-licensed barber college violated her rights.

Yet Archbold wasn’t even busted for practicing hairbraiding without a license — only advertising it. When the TDLR investigator called the number listed in the ad to confront her, “Ms. Archbold replied that she was not aware of the requirement and agreed to remove the advertisement,” according to court documents. It didn’t matter: the administrative judge ruled that by placing the ad, Archbold “engaged in the practice of cosmetology” and so levied the four-figure fine.

The towing industry accumulates more violations than most other professions overseen by TDLR. Many are serious (see above). At an August 20 hearing, a TDLR legal staffer explained that Altamirano’s violation also was “a serious violation because a person who is not familiar with the tow truck could attempt to use the boom, winch or carrying mechanism to life a vehicle that was heavier than the rating, thereby causing serious damage.”

Altamirano, who represented himself at the hearing, responded that he didn’t need to consult the sign; he’d worked with tow trucks for more than a decade and was “intimately familiar with his truck.” He added that he learned of his violation at a voluntary tow truck round up, and noted that he actually had the required sign; it was just faded by the sun.

The judge was unmoved, stating that, hypothetically, someone else might be driving the truck who was unfamiliar with its capacity: “The ALJ finds that a $2,000 penalty is appropriate,” Arnold wrote.